# Ukrainian flag: based on blue sky & sunflowers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347 "2022-03-19T16:53:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/1 "2022-03-19T16:53:16Z")
I saw a meme or three lately, showing a bright blue cloudless sky over a field of yellow oilseed sunflowers, with messages of support for the Ukrainians. Is that where the flag choice originated? I know Ukraine grows a metric shitload of sunflowers - that’s an official amount - for cooking oil, and is (was?) a big exporter. Did they select the flag colors based on this? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/2 "2022-03-19T17:22:38Z")
Looking at the Wikipedia article, it dates back quite a ways, but there doesn’t seem to be a formal symbolism. I don’t know if it’s specifically sunflowers. It looks very familiar to me, because of the terrain similarities between Ukraine and Saskatchewan. Blue sky above, grain below, is what I assumed it is based on. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/3 "2022-03-19T19:35:21Z")
The sunflower is an official symbol of Ukraine, which makes it more plausible. According to Wikipedia, the original symbolism of the colors was golden church domes over the blue Dnieper river (the yellow was originally on top), but that when it changed to blue on top in the mid-1800s, an explanation was circulated of sky over wheat or sunflowers. But that section of the article is packed full of (Citation Needed), so take it for what it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/4 "2022-03-19T19:56:48Z")
Yet another way Ukraine resembles Kansas\* - the Sunflower State (\*and Iowa, and parts of Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Minnesota) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/5 "2022-03-20T01:36:56Z")
Ukrainian farm scene > **[File:Flag colors.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Typical_agricultural_landscape_of_Kherson_Oblast.jpg)** Easy to see where the design comes from. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/6 "2022-03-20T01:58:13Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Easy to see where the design comes from. No, it’s not. It’s easy to draw a conclusion on that, because it fits the narrative really well. But the OP is asking for a specific cite that would confirm this, not a WAG. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/7 "2022-03-20T02:02:58Z")
Yes, thank you. The memes are easy … I wanted to know if that’s the image from which the O.G. design was drawn. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/8 "2022-03-20T02:37:07Z")
Any yet, the blue-over-yellow flag has a decidedly top-heavy look to it, which it would not have if the yellow were on top and blue below. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/9 "2022-03-20T02:54:29Z")
Bicolor and tricolor European flags draw from heraldic traditions, which didn’t really rely on specific “meanings” of colors, but rather just on simple distinctiveness. Any meanings now understood are most likely created retroactively. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/10 "2022-03-20T03:03:52Z")
Since Ukraine has traditionally been called _Europe’s Breadbasket_ due to the high grain production, I always assumed the yellow was the grain. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukrainian-flag-based-on-blue-sky-sunflowers/961347/11 "2022-03-20T03:17:20Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Bicolor and tricolor European flags draw from heraldic traditions, which didn’t really rely on specific “meanings” of colors, but rather just on simple distinctiveness. Any meanings now understood are most likely created retroactively. The blue and yellow colours apparently come from Lviv’s ancient coat of arms, and you’re right, the colours by themselves don’t dictate the flag design. The first flag proposed for Ukraine, during the 1848 revolutions, was gold over blue. The current flag dates to 1918, when the colours were reversed: " to reflect ‘blue skies over golden wheat fields’.” So saith Whitney Smith, the father of modern vexillilogy, in the Britanica article: > **[Flag of Ukraine | Colors, Meaning & History](https://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-Ukraine)** > > Horizontally divided blue-yellow national flag. Its width-to-length ratio is 2 to 3.More than a thousand years ago a powerful state, Kievan Rus, was founded in an area that is now part of Ukraine. National flags did not exist at that time, but Kievan...